In an effort to promote intercollegiate Special Olympics, Notre Dame hosted a soccer tournament last Sunday in collaboration with Western Michigan University and the University of Michigan. Senior Ted Glasnow, co-president of Special Olympics Notre Dame, said Special Olympics Unified Sports combines an approximately equal number of athletes with intellectual disabilities and athletes without intellectual disabilities on teams for training and competition. “Unified soccer avoids what can sometimes be the patronizing relationship between volunteers without intellectual disability and athletes with intellectual disabilities,” Glasnow said. “This event shows that the former is not the only party that can bring something to the table and highlights the equality that should exist in society in general.” Glasnow said the tournament took place Apr. 14 from 1 to 4 p.m. at Alumni Field. There were three games, and each team played the other two teams. The team from Western Michigan won the tournament, Michigan’s team came in second and Notre Dame placed third. The players dedicated eight weeks to training after the teams took shape in January, Glasnow said. He said the participation of the athletes was more important than the outcome of the games themselves. Glasnow said the soccer tournament, while perhaps only a small start, attests to the rising involvement in Special Olympics activities at the college level and the passion students bring to these activities. “A few years back, Special Olympics International did not think it was worthwhile to promote the type of volunteerism they do for younger demographics,” he said. “So, we felt the need to prove that college students can bring the same, if not more, passion to their service through Special Olympics.” Glasnow said his passion comes from serving as a coach of Special Olympics track and field since high school. He said events like the unified soccer tournament will galvanize colleges around the country to consider adding and expanding Special Olympics programs for their students, incorporating teams like the ones that participated in Sunday’s tournament into their full athletic lineups. “We are already working with schools across the country, in accordance with the Special Olympics nationa-l office, to spread the event even further,” Glasnow said. “Eventually, we hope to have state, regional and national collegiate Unified sports seasons.” Glasnow said he felt the event ought to have received more support from the Notre Dame student body. “Many friends and family members of the athletes showed up from the community,” he said. “But we had a disappointing number of students.” Glasnow said Special Olympics Notre Dame intends to continue and hopefully expand the united soccer event next year. “We are definitely going to have the event again next year,” Glasnow said. “We are hoping for at least four teams next year, but we are certainly shooting for as many as we can get.” Glasnow said Adidas and Special Olympics Indiana sponsored the tournament.
Notre Dame class of 2015 alumna Emily Mediate has been named a Rhodes Scholar of the American Rhodes Scholar Class of 2016 — the seventeenth Notre Dame graduate to receive the award, according to a University press release.Mediate will be one of 32 Scholars set to begin their studies at Oxford in October of next year, selected from a pool of 869 applicants, the release stated.“We are tremendously proud of Emily Mediate for this well-deserved honor,” University President Fr. John Jenkins said in the press release. “Congratulations also to the faculty who taught Emily and to the Center for Undergraduate Scholarly Engagement (CUSE) who put in countless hours assisting Emily and other candidates for the Rhodes and other scholars’ programs.”According to the press release, Mediate, a native of Colorado Springs, Colorado, majored in Africana studies and pre-health during her time at Notre Dame. She was a Dean’s Fellow in the College of Arts and Letters as well as a Kellogg Institute International Scholar. Currently, Mediate is a Kellogg Institute postgraduate International Development Fellow.The release stated Mediate intends to pursue a master’s degree in evidence-based social intervention and policy evaluation (EBSIPE) while at Oxford.“I am thrilled to be named as a 2016 Rhodes Scholar,” Mediate said in the release. “I am especially grateful to my peers and faculty advisers who supported my personal and academic growth along the way.“While studying in the U.K., I can only hope to adequately live up to Notre Dame’s mission of applying scholarly activity to the pursuit of the common good and with concern for the poverty and injustice that plagues our world today. This underlying motivation is the greatest lesson that I will take with me from Notre Dame and apply during my time at Oxford.”Besides Mediate, class of 2015 alumna Nicole Sganga and current senior Kelly McGee were also finalists for the 2016 Rhodes Scholarship. Class of 2014 alumnus Alex Coccia was named a Rhodes Scholar last November.Tags: CUSE, Oxford University, Rhodes Scholar
AddThis Sharing ButtonsShare to FacebookFacebookShare to TwitterTwitterShare to MoreAddThisALPENA, Mich. — Besser Elementary School students brought life to their first ever wax museum for historical figures.A group of fifth graders became the faces of popular leaders from the medieval age to the present day Wednesday afternoon. History teacher Sarah Winter says the ancient faces derived from a writing project.“I had 30 kids out of 70 want to do the history wax museum,” said Winter, “where they took their figure from history, used a costume to look like that person and then give a 30 second, one minute performance.”A majority of the school walked through the one–time wax museum. Fifth graders were studying Native American history leading to the Revolutionary War. When it came time to portray a historical figure, they choose characters beyond the era that they learned about in the classroom.“It’s been a month long process where they’ve been reading about their person from history, studying, putting their research booklet together, and then for extra credit, becoming a figure coming alive at the museum,” said Winter.AddThis Sharing ButtonsShare to FacebookFacebookShare to TwitterTwitterShare to MoreAddThisContinue ReadingPrevious Senior Living: A new, free program that can save livesNext Photo of the Day for Thursday, April 25